"The woman in Room 609, Storme DeLarverie, has dementia. She is but one anonymous elderly New Yorker in a city with thousands upon thousands of them. And many of those who marched down Fifth Avenue on Sunday would be hard pressed to realize that this little old lady — once the cross-dressing M.C. of a group of drag-queen performers, once a fiercely protective (and pistol-packing) bouncer in the city’s lesbian bars — was one of the reasons they were marching."

The Bronx LGBTQ Center is deeply saddened by the loss of a pioneer of the modern-day LGBTQ civil rights movement, Stormé Delarverie. Often referred to as the "Rosa Parks" as the gay rights movement, Stormé was a fierce woman who stood up for our community on countless occasions. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on the morning of Saturday, May 24, 2014.

Stormé was an amazing and warm individual who spent her life taking care of people. It didn't matter if they were lesbian, gay, straight, young, old, transgender, questioning, bisexual, Black, White, Latino -- she treated everyone with the same warmth, compassion, kindness, conviction, courage, strength of spirit, and love. This led her to be dubbed the unofficial mother of our community, especially by those who knew her.

She was not someone who tolerated injustice, though she faced it on an almost daily basis throughout much of her life. Stormé was a Black lesbian who often presented as a Black man, although she could easily have passed for a White woman -- she choose not to do so. Her love of people made Stormé an advocate, and she stood up to all injustice whenever she encountered or heard about it.

It was this conviction that led her to change the world for all of us, for the better. Stormé is credited as having thrown on of the first punches during the Stonewall Uprising in June, 1969. But it was her ongoing effort throughout decades of caring for our community that most people who knew her, remember her.

A celebration of her life and immeasurable contributions to the modern Gay Civil Rights Movement will be held on Thursday, May 29th from 7-9pm at the Greenwich Village Funeral Home, 199 Bleecker Street (@ 6th Avenue), New York, NY. All are welcomed to honor this woman who forever changed our lives and helped launch the movement that will bring us equality.

Roland Emmerich's Stonewall will be a retelling of the Stonewall riots, the iconic event that kicked off the gay rights movement, and one of the actors in talks for the film is Caleb Landry Jones, who is known for his roles as Jimmy Adler in Friday Night Lights and Banshee in X-Men: First Class.

According to Deadline, Jones will be playing Orphan Annie, "an eccentric gay street hustler who at first resists then warms up to Danny and later participates in the Stonewall uprising."

Stonewall is presently in pre-production and does not yet have a set release date.

Scripted by Jon Robin Baitz, the film is about the June 28, 1969 police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a mafia-owned bar that was a gathering place for gays and transgenders. It became the flashpoint for the gay rights movement, a galvanizing event that is considered a touchstone even today in the fight for equal rights for the gay and transgender population. Emmerich’s way in is to focus on a young man’s political awakening in the backdrop of those riots.

Emmerich plans to start production soon as he's also preparing an Independence Day sequel due to arrive in summer 2016.

Irish Queers will be holding a press conference during this year's parade on Monday 3/17 at 10:30am ET on Fifth Avenue between 56th and 57th regarding the parade.

“The homophobic bigotry of this parade is reaffirmed each year by the organizers," said JF Mulligan of Irish Queers, in a press release. "The NYPD’s insistence on sending huge uniformed contingents every year makes it clear that the rights of our communities don’t concern them. Commissioner Bratton hasn’t even acknowledged the community’s outrage. If the NYPD and the City refuses to uphold their own anti-bias rules, how can we trust police officers with our safety?”

Then, at 1 pm on Monday, the group will gather with GLAAD and community activists at the Stonewall Inn at which time Guinness products are to be removed from the bar.

There's a bit of a storm brewing over London city buses these days--or rather, over the advertisements printed on the side of some buses sponsored by UK LGBT rights group Stonewall that read 'Some people are gay. Get over it!' The Telegraph reports:

A traditionalist Christian group has lodged papers at the High Court attempting to force Transport for London to take down hundreds of new billboards on double-decker buses telling people who disapprove of homosexuality to “get over it”.

It claims that transport chiefs are deliberately ignoring a ruling by a High Court judge that the posters, from the gay rights group Stonewall, are “highly offensive to fundamentalist Christians” who believe that gay sex is a “sin”.

In response to the Stonewall advertisements, Core Issues Trust, a Christian group that purports to provide "reorientation" therapy that can turn gay people straight, bought advertisement space on London's buses for billboards that would read 'Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get Over It!'

London Mayor Boris Johnson intervened and banned the Christian advertisements, calling them "clearly offensive" for likening homosexuality to an illness. In response, Core Issues Trust took the case to court. From The Telegraph:

In her judgment Mrs Justice Lang ruled that Mr Johnson had not abused his position by banning the adverts but went on to question the decision to allow the earlier Stonewall advertisements as well.

TfL’s decision to allow one advertisement but not the other was “was inconsistent and partial”, she ruled. The outcome of an appeal is due later this year.

Stonewall's advertisements, the High Court judge wrote in her ruling, are "highly offensive to fundamentalist Christians" who believe gay sex is sinful." Now, Dr. Michael Davidson, the founder of Core Issues Trust, has filed an urgent judicial review seeking an injunction barring Transport for London from placing new Stonewall ads on London buses.

"I feel that Stonewall and the Defendant are deliberately flouting the rulings of the court by renewing their advertisement campaign on buses which was clearly prohibited by the earlier judgment of Mrs Justice Lang," Davidson told the court in his application for review.

A spokesman for Transport for London told The Telegraph simply, "These ads are in line with our advertising policy."